Church shooter wanted to be missionary

New Life Church members Catherine Hammond hugs her daughter Marica Morales outside New Life Church on Dec. 10, 2007, where Morales, 15, had sought grief counseling. She had left New Life Church just before shooting broke out Sunday. (THE DENVER POST | CRAIG F. WALKER)

Police describe a chaotic scene with smoke bombs going off outside the New Life Church moments before Matthew Murray began firing in a rampage that killed two and wounded three others Sunday.

Forensic evidence from the shooting at the church matches evidence found at Arvada's Youth with a Mission, a missionary training facility, scene of an earlier shooting spree that killed two others. Murray had once been enroleld there.

Police say Murray, 24, of Englewood, was the lone gunman in both cases.

At an afternoon press conference, police described the chaos at New Life Church that began at about 1:10 p.m. Sunday.

Smoke bombs went off near two entrances to the mega-church before Murray fired his first shots.

Deadly Shootings

Listen to the Murrays' interview with Focus on the Family leader James Dobson on February 28 and 29th, 2008.

Watch video: five killed in shootings at two Colorado religious sites.

Listen to an audio statement about the shootings from Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter.

Then Murray, who was armed with clips for 1,000 rounds of ammunition, and two hand guns, began firing an assault rifle in an corner of the parking lot.

Sisters Stephanie, 18, and Rachael Works, 16, and their father, David Works, 51, were struck. Stephanie died at the scene, and her sister died later at Penrose Hospital.

Their father was wounded in the abdomen and groin.

Murray continued to spray bullets, hitting Judy Purcell, 40, in the shoulder and striking a number of vehicles.

Murray then made his way to the church's eastern entrance and fired several rounds through the doors. Larry Bourbannais, 59, was wounded.

Assam, who also spoke at a Colorado Springs press conference this afternoon, said she saw Murray coming through the doors, and took cover.

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A police helicopter over the steeple of New Life Church in Colorado Springs Sunday Dec. 9, 2007 after a man went inside the church and opened fire. (THE DENVER POST | ANDY CROSS)

She then emerged and identified herself, "and I took him down." Assam fired as many as six rounds at Murray.

Assam said she was praying to the "Holy Spirit" during the confrontation.

It is not known if Assam's rounds killed Murray, said Colorado Springs police Sgt. Jeff Jensen. "She definitely wounded him but we don't know if she was the cause of the fatal wound. We don't know if there was a self-inflicted gunshot wound as well."

Police found three weapons - the assault rifle, and two pistols, along with a backpack he carried containing ammo in clips.

The shootings after a service at the mega-church Sunday afternoon followed a bloodbath in the early morning hours at Youth With a Mission, a missionary training facility in Arvada.

Bullet holes pock a door at New Life Church in Colorado Springs after the rampage. (THE DENVER POST | JOHN LEYBA)

Two Youth With a Mission staff members died after that shooting, and two more were wounded. Murray asked the staff to stay at the residence on the Faith Bible Chapel campus before the shootings.

When Tiffany Johnson, 26, the hospitality director, told him he wouldn't be able to spend the night, he began shooting.

Johnson and the other staffers were going to suggest alternative places for him to stay before they were gunned down, Cheryl Morrison, wife of Faith Bible Chapel's senior pastor said.

Johnson and Philip Crouse, 24, died after being taken to area hospitals. Dan Griebenow, 24 and Charlie Blanch, 22, were wounded.

Jenny Cartwright rests her head on the shoulder of a friend outside New Life Church on Sunday afternoon. Cartwright's son was in the church at the time of the shooting, and she was unsure of his whereabouts afterward. (SPECIAL TO THE DENVER POST | Nathan W. Armes)

Murray participated in a Youth With a Mission training program 5 years ago but his health barred him from doing field work and going further with the program, YWaM director Peter Warren said at a separate press conference in Arvada.

In the past few weeks, he sent string of messages expressing his discontent about the program to the program and its director, authorities said.

Earlier today, a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity said it appeared Murray "hated Christians."

Murray is the son of a local neurologist who is a prominent researcher on multiple sclerosis.

Investigators, including a bomb squad, searched a home on East Berry Place in Arapahoe County on Sunday night, Murray's last known address.

A SWAT officer responds to the shooting at New Life Church in Colorado Springs on Sunday, Dec. 9, 2007. (THE DENVER POST | ANDY CROSS)

In 1990, Murray was registered as a home-schooled student with the Cherry Creek School District, said district spokeswoman Tustin Amole. He later took the Iowa test, a standard test given to third-graders nationwide at the time, said Amole. That is the last record that the district has of him.

Murray has something in common with the Works sisters who died at New Life. They too were home-schooled.

Murray's later school history indicates a young man adrift. He attended Arapahoe Community College for a while, then quit. Last year he enrolled for a class at Colorado Christian University but dropped out immediately after enrolling.